Radio România Internațional

Tag: gender equality

  • Women’s Health in Romania

    Women’s Health in Romania

    The concern for preserving one’s health seems to be mostly manifested by women. For instance, only 36.2% of Romanian men abstain from drinking and smoking, as compared to 73.4% of women. However, men fare better in terms of eating habits and physical exercise, with 16% of them eating fruit and vegetables and doing physical exercise, as compared to a mere 7.4% of women.



    This is only some of the data included in the third edition of the Gender Equality Index made public by the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE). The Index measures gender gaps and takes into account the context and different levels of achievement of EU member states within a range of relevant policy areas: work, money, knowledge, time, power, health, intersectoral inequities and violence against women.



    All domains and member states are granted a number of points, on a scale from 1 to 100, where 1 stands for total inequality and 100 stands for total equality. In terms of health, the aforementioned differences point to the fact that access to healthcare services and mentalities on preserving one’s health depend on gender.



    For instance, encouraging boys from a very early age to drink and smoke may very well reflect a society’s attitude towards men’s and women’s roles in the community, says EIGE expert Zuzana Madarova: “For women, implications in gender norms are very different. So let’s imagine the image of the modern woman puts a lot of pressure on women, these days. There are many women who are employed and at the same time they are primarily responsible for childcare, for households, it is actually this context that we need to see. And we also know from the domain of time that women have less time for social activities, for leisure, for going to the gym, for going to the theater. This is actually the context we need to see when we say that men are more physically active than women. This is why we need to bring gender to the heart of health policies, to understand where differences are coming from. “



    Moreover, although across the European Union women live 5 years longer than men, on average, it remains to be seen to what extent women enjoy a satisfactory health condition, although they live longer than men. As for the access to healthcare services, which is good across the European Union, it weighs a great deal in this statistics.



    Zuzana Madarova once again: “We look at different social groups and we can see that the social group that faces highest or the most barriers in access to healthcare are people with disabilities, women and men with disabilities. And the group with the biggest gender gap is single parents. We can say that single mothers face the highest barriers in access to healthcare. In the EU, there are more than 9 million single parents and that is very gendered because 85 % of them are women. “



    Of all women living in Europe, Romania women have the poorest health record. The Gender Equality Index has granted Romania 70.4 points, the lowest percentage points across the EU, the average standing at 87.4 points. This is not at all surprising, considering that Romania, for instance, ranks first among the EU member states relative to the number of cervical cancer cases and a high rate of maternal mortality at birth, while breast cancer is one of the major “killers” among both women and men.



    The situation is truly saddening, considering that cervical cancer can be prevented by vaccination, and some cases of breast cancer are curable, if diagnosed early. Ana Măiţă, the president of the “Mothers for mothers” non-governmental organisation, militates for vaccinating girls against HPV, the virus that triggers cervical cancer, and for breast cancer prevention. The SAMAS Association for mothers and babies has recently scored a real success.



    Ana Măiţă, who is also a member of the SAMAS association has further details: “Together with medical companies and non-governmental associations we have managed to convince the National Audio-Visual Council to include a message on breast-feeding in a series of compulsory ads of general interest that electronic broadcasters should air: mothers should breastfeed exclusively for the first six months, which is essential for their babies’ development. Breastfeeding is essential not only for babies’ health but also for the health of their mothers. Studies show that women who breastfeed for at least 12 months have a 30% lower risk of developing breast cancer. “



    Prevention of breast cancer also includes a set of specific tests — a screening — and mammography is among them. Ana Maita: “There is a national program on breast cancer prevention, developed by the Health Ministry. Unfortunately, some Romanian women do not have access to this program, either because they lack information or do not understand the urgent need to take these tests and do not request a specific screening from their medical doctors. In general, public policies should be more efficiently oriented towards ensuring women’s health, underlining the importance of prevention and vaccination and continuing with pro-health education in school and within the community, laying special emphasis on reproductive health education since adolescence. In reality, in Romania, 20% of the women who become mothers every year have a first contact with a medical doctor when they give birth. They do not go to see a doctor for a prenatal check-up. And, under the law, women have the right to check-ups, most of them free of charge.”



    As the Gender Equality Index shows, apart from medical education and access to medical services, the social role played by women is more complex than it may seem.



    Ana Măiţă: “It is true that in Romania, women carry the burden of domestic chores and this is one of the most concrete reasons why women no longer take the time to take care of their health. This is the root cause of a sad reality which shows that most women suffering from various types of cancer are diagnosed when the disease is advanced. They go to see a doctor at the last moment when it is often too late for some of them to be rescued.”

  • Women in the media and the IT sector

    Women in the media and the IT sector

    EU statistics say that women continue to be poorly represented in the IT sector and mass media, though some progress has been made in this respect in recent years. However, the statistics point to certain differences separating Romania from other EU countries. In many European countries, there are more women journalists than men. However, less women journalists than men hold management positions. For instance, on an average, at a European level, in 2015, 48% of women reporters and senior producers worked in television, 40% were broadcast journalists and 34% worked in the print press. Nevertheless, 38% of women had management positions in mass media and only 36% held top positions.



    According to a survey conducted by the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) every five years, in 2015, though 80% of the graduates of relevant faculties were women, only 35% of them worked in the print press, radio and TV, and only 38% were active on the news sites. However, an improvement was noted as against the GMMP report of 2010, not necessarily in terms of the number of news and broadcast producers, but rather in terms of their content, says Oana Baluta, a female activist and associate professor at the Journalism School of the University of Bucharest:



    Oana Baluta: “There is a symbolical annihilation in mass media: less women work in mass media than men. When they do work in this sector, women are often trivialized, even those holding managerial positions. We take more interest in a woman managers hairdo than in her professional performance or resume. Another problem is that the mass media tends to reinforce stereotypes regarding women. Interestingly, mostly men are interviewed as experts or invited as guests in various talk shows, indicating where the power of expertise and knowledge is thought to lie. Women are generally invited when social issues are addressed. All those problems should be food for thought.



    Similar findings are presented in a complex report on equal opportunities for men and women in six key areas and two adjacent ones. Oana Baluta believes that there are no flattering results regarding Romania in the EU Gender Equality Index:



    Oana Baluta: “According to the European Gender Equality Index, Romania is at the bottom of the EU ranking in terms of gender equality. The Index measures gender equality in several domains such as knowledge, education, power and time. For instance, the extent to which women and men have access to free time, given that apart from working, women also do house chores and take care of children.



    This is the overall picture, but a closer look at some segments shows that at present, the Romanian Government is headed by a woman, and 8 other ministries are also led by women. In Romania, only 5% of women earn less than men in similar positions, as compared to the European average of 16%. Furthermore, in IT, a sector which is increasingly connected to the mass media, Romanian women are better represented than most European women. According to data released by Eurostat, the proportion of Romanian women specialists in the field stands at 27%, as against to the 16% EU average, our country ranking second in Europe, after Bulgaria and ahead of Latvia. However, in this sector, too, women are under-represented at European level, MEP Claudia Ţapardel concludes:



    Claudia Ţapardel: “As regards the advantages offered by the IT&C domain, women only benefit from one-third of these advantages. Also, there is an alarming trend at European level, namely that many of the ladies who are already active in the field will later in their career give up their work in this domain and embrace another one. This happens at a time when the European Commission forecasts that, by 2020, there will be a deficit of 1,000,000 IT&C experts in Europe. In another field associated with the IT industry, namely science and engineering, only one-fifth of management positions are held by women.



    In order to reduce gender gaps on the labour market, Romania intends to introduce a new job, in accordance with the international legislation that our country has already adopted. Graţiela Drăghici, the President of the National Agency for Gender Equality, has more:



    Graţiela Drăghici: “The gender equality expert job is an instrument that we make available to Romanian society and all public and private entities. A new bill regulates the possibility for all public and private entities with more than 50 employees to identify an employee who can be assigned the position of gender equality expert, or to hire one from outside the respective institution or firm. This is not mandatory, we only sought to offer an instrument without imposing an obligation. This instrument has a high potential of promoting the issue of gender equality in society.



    The draft law meant to regulate the position of gender equality expert has already been passed by the government and is to be debated in Parliament.



    (translated by: Ana-Maria Palcu, Diana Vijeu)

  • Gender Equality in Romanian Society

    Gender Equality in Romanian Society

    In 2014, the media gave extensive coverage
    to an extremely serious case. An 18-year-old girl from Valeni in Vaslui County,
    eastern Romania, was raped by seven young men. After the magistrates ruled for
    the arrest of the aggressors, the reactions of the community were soon to
    appear. Paradoxically, there were quite a few people who sided with the
    aggressors, saying the victim destroyed seven families and she had
    instigated the boys to rape her. Sexist and gender discriminatory attitudes
    are however present in higher circles as well, even in the European Parliament,
    where a Polish MP said women should earn less than men, because they are
    weaker, smaller and less intelligent. A similar statement was made by a
    prominent Romanian neurosurgeon and politician who said women are not made for
    surgery. And, just because in March women usually benefit from some extra
    attention, several brands came up with surprises. One of them was offered by a
    famous bakery chain, which promoted specialities such as Croque Maid and
    Croque Monsieur.

    Andreea Braga, from the FILIA centre, an NGO which fights
    gender inequality through activism, advocacy and research, explains:


    I think all these things are possible because we are uneducated on the issue,
    we do not have an education to promote gender equality, the respect between
    women and men, the history of feminism, women’s contribution to society,
    everything that should make us aware of how toxic discrimination is. Apart from
    this type of messages sent by opinion formers, we also identify more
    conservative attitudes, which infringe upon women’s rights. It is the case of a
    recent march against abortion, which was staged in many cities across Romania
    and which publicly stigmatised women for their right to make decisions relative
    to their own bodies. Such events show us that we haven’t learnt anything from
    Romania’s history. We shouldn’t forget that abortion was banned by the
    communist regime and over 10,000 women died because of that, according to
    official data. It is very clear that these conservative values are now
    infringing upon women’s rights and, furthermore, we lack an alternative at
    educational level. We have laws, we have a Constitution which says we are all
    equal, but in reality- and when I say that I also refer to statistics- there
    are many inequalities.


    According to
    statistics, one in four women has been physically or sexually abused by her
    partner at least once in their lifetime, and, according to recent reports
    issued by the Public Ministry in 2013, 2014 and 2015, the number of victims is
    on the rise, by the year. Furthermore, if we take a look at the labour market,
    women in Romania are paid less than men and they are less promoted than men.
    Romania registers the third lowest female employment rate in the European
    Union, according to data issued by the World Bank. As Andreea Braga has said,
    the alternative to sexist mentalities and attitudes should be found in
    education. However, according to the conclusions reached by sociologists after
    having analysed over 1,600 textbook illustrations, these images do not seem to
    favour gender equality, even if we refer to textbooks brought out in recent
    years. Cosima Rughinis, the initiator of this extensive research, says she and
    the other sociologists have taken into consideration two aspects: gender
    representation and the way in which technology is featured in illustrations, in
    relation to the two genders. In brief, the girls are beautiful, nice, dressed
    up in pink, always holding a mirror or a doll. When they grow up, the doll is
    replaced by a baby, and the mirror by a pot. Boys, however, are allowed to be
    rebel, to hold a sword, to conquer the space or discover chemical formulae.

    Cosima Rughinis:

    The problem is
    that reality is not like this. There are women who are electricians, engineers,
    who have chosen to become taxi drivers. Textbooks do not reflect reality, they
    narrow it. They do not help children see the world in which their mothers have
    jobs. On the contrary, they present a distorted image or an interpretation grid
    that does not match the world we live in. Textbooks should help broaden
    children’s vision of the world they live in and encourage girls to have
    aspirations. But, as I said, not only that these textbooks do not help
    children do that, they don’t even help
    them see the real world. We were not
    surprised to see that in the old textbooks, but we didn’t expect to see the
    same things in the new ones, published in the past years.


    Illustrations are
    supported by content. In order to change the content, and here we talk about
    literature textbooks alone, those who make them should discover the fact that
    there are women writers too, many of them contemporary. Here is sociologist
    Cosima Rughinis again:


    When we talk
    about schoolbooks, inequity is omnipresent. On the one hand, there is this
    generic cultural sexism that were are all faced with and which has not been
    formally acknowledged in Romania. On the other hand, if we think of the structure
    of these schoolbooks, they include literary texts from the 19th
    century. Texts that were mostly written by men, from their 19th
    century perspective. One potential solution would be for these textbooks to
    take over pieces written by women, and some of these women should be
    contemporary writers. In conclusion, besides sexist representations,
    schoolbooks include a lot of patriarchal representations, which were a common
    place in Romania one and half century ago. Look at the lesson on leadership in
    the civic education textbooks. There you can see the gender difference.
    Usually, with just a very few exceptions, all these books present boys as
    leaders.


    But how does 19th
    century mentality match with the current legislation in force Andreea Braga is
    attempting an answer:


    We have a law
    and a strategy on equal chances for men and women. However, as long as there is
    no political will to tackle gender equality as a priority, we will not be able
    to fix much. And when I say priority, I’m also referring to certain types of
    violence that women are faced with, both in the public and in the private
    sector. We are all aware of these issues, but they are always left outside the
    public discourse. It is quite rare that we see debates on how to set up more shelters
    for victims of domestic abuse, when there are 13 counties in this country where
    such shelters do not exist at all. Or, we have legislative proposals that
    encourage discrimination or job harassment, in the sense that when it first
    happens, the aggressor only gets a verbal warning. It is quite obvious that, in
    order to trigger a structural change in society, we need education first and
    foremost and as early as possible. Also, we need politicians who are well
    informed and aware of all these issues.



  • March 8, 2017

    March 8, 2017

    INTL WOMENS DAY – The International Womens Day is celebrated today in many countries. In Romania, where according to the latest data made public by the National Statistics Institute more than 10 million women live, women are celebrated in a series of debates, exhibitions, concerts, book launches and other events. The European Parliament is hosting a meeting of the Committee on Womens Rights and Gender Equality, with the theme Womens Economic Empowerment: Lets Act Together! the International Womens Day was first marked in the early 20th Century, after an organisation sponsored a meeting on womens rights in New York.



    EUROPEAN COUNCIL – A “multi-speed Europe as a solution to give fresh impetus to the European project after Brexit will be the focus of talks at the European Council meeting due on Thursday and Friday in Brussels, where Romania will be represented by President Klaus Iohannis. The two-speed Europe idea, backed by Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, is also strongly supported by France and Germany, which were joined on Monday in Versailles by Italy and Spain. Romania will oppose this plan, as the President pointed out once again on Tuesday in Bucharest. In turn, the Romanian PM Sorin Grindeanu will present Romanias stand in Brussels today, at the meeting of the Party of European Socialists. Other countries are also concerned with the prospect of becoming second-level member states. These include the members of the Visegrad Group (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), who have already opposed Brussels policy on migration.



    RESIGNATION – The former prime minister of Romania, Deputy Victor Ponta, has today announced he is submitting his undated resignation from the Social Democratic Party, and leaving it to the party president Liviu Dragnea to make a decision in this respect. Ponta added that he and Dragnea no longer worked together. Dragnea replied that he would never agree with the ex-PM leaving the party. The announcement comes after many speculations in the media regarding the cold relations between the two leading Social Democrats. In 2015, Ponta became the first PM in office to be subject to criminal investigations for corruption offences, and in the same year he stepped down as head of the party and of the government, amid massive street protests. Dragnea took over the presidency of the Social Democratic Party. In 2016, Dragnea himself received a suspended 2-year prison sentence, for attempted election fraud, and is currently on trial in a separate corruption case.



    MILITARY – The Atlantic Resolve and Poseidon 2017 multinational military exercises continue today at the “Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase in south-eastern Romania and in the Black Sea. For the first time, 8 American helicopters are taking part in the drills. They were deployed from several European countries, as part of the US commitment to strengthen the eastern flank of NATO. This is the first such unit deployed to Eastern Europe, as part of Operation Atlantic Resolve, which brings together over 2,200 troops, 86 helicopters and over 700 pieces of military equipment sent from several American ports to Germany, Latvia and Romania. Also today, a sea survey vessel, Alexandru Cătuneanu is conducting research training at sea.



    ITB BERLIN – 40 tour-operators from Romania are taking part until Sunday in the Berlin Travel Trade Show, the largest such fair in the world. According to a news release issued by the Romanian Tourism Ministry, destinations from around the country will be presented. Romanias stand will also host egg painting demonstrations, and folk costume and traditional jewellery design workshops. During a Romanian-themed evening, traditional Romanian music, dance and cuisine will be introduced to visitors. The Tourism Minister, Mircea-Titus Dobre, is taking part today, on the first day of the trade show, in the Silk Road Ministers Meeting, an event organised by the World Tourism Organisation. Tomorrow, the Romanian official will have meetings with his counterparts from Poland, Serbia, and Ukraine, and then he will give an address at the Danube Salon, a conference devoted to joint tourism projects by riparian countries. Romania has been taking part in this trade show since 1970.



    TENNIS – The Romanians Sorana Cirstea (66 WTA) and Monica Niculescu (45 WTA) are playing against each other today in the opening round of the Premier Mandatory tournament of Indian Wells, in the USA, with 6.9 million US dollars in prize money. Three other players from Romania, Simona Halep (4 WTA), Irina Begu (32 WTA) and Patricia Tig (99 WTA) are also playing in the tournament. Halep and Begu are playing in the second round. Last year Simona Halep was eliminated from the quarter-finals of this tournament by world no. 1 Serena Williams.

  • Gender equality legislated in Bucharest

    Gender equality legislated in Bucharest

    At the beginning of summer, five Romanian senators proposed, in a draft law, that November 19 should become Men’s Day, given that International Women’s Day had been celebrated ever since 1977 on March 8, following a UN resolution. The aim of this resolution was to celebrate women and their achievements in all fields of life and to denounce discrimination and violence against them, which continues to be a problem in many parts of the world.



    However, the Romanian senators’ proposal to also have a Men’s Day should, in their opinion, help reach a balance in terms of gender equality. This does not mean that women have had the upper hand over men in the Romanian society. On the contrary, it’s been repeatedly proven that men are better paid than women, in spite of having the same education, that the number of women appointed in leading positions is way below that of men, that the issue of equality of chances between men and women is almost always disregarded by policymakers.



    Moreover, there are many people who don’t hesitate to say that a woman’s place is in the kitchen, that her duty is to raise the kids and clean the house and that after work it’s her moral obligation to devote herself to household chores. Against this background, changing mentalities appears to be a must. Consequently, the Romanian Parliament has recently passed a bill on gender equality.



    Liberal MP Cristina Pocora tells us her opinion on what this equality is: “One can speak about equality between women and men when both genders are able to equally share power and influence, to have equal opportunities to gain financial independence achieved through work and by setting up their own business, to have equal access to education and the chance to develop their skills and talents, share the responsibility for their children and household maintenance and to be free of any type of constraints, intimidation and violence both at home and at work.”



    The bill passed by Parliament also stipulates the reopening of the Agency for Equality of Chances. The Social Democratic MP Ana Birchall, one of the bill’s initiators, has pointed out that the enforcement of the “equal work, equal pay” principle has also been regulated.



    Ana Birchall: “Under this bill, employers have the obligation to ensure equality of chances for all employees, irrespective of gender, and are not allowed to ask for personal information such as marital status and plans to start a family.”



    In the opinion of the prime minister Victor Ponta, this bill, which is based on the European principle “equal pay for work of equal value” will improve the lives of Romanian women.